Reasons to Believe....

I read this today and had to share it.....

Clearly I had good reasons for believing....I could see that everyone--my parents, my big brothers and sisters, all the strange crowds that filled out church on Sunday--had known the wonderful secret I had learned, and believed it too. Anyone could see how sure they were, especially when the Eucharist was held up before them at the altar. Most of them were saying quietly, "My Lord and my God," the very words my mother told me to say.
For it made sense of so much. If God made us, and all things, he had to stick with us in this wonderful and dangerous world. Of course, like all little boys, I loved this strange world. But already I had learned how fragile it is: when our dog died; when I got a bad ear ache and could not understand it; when a greatuncle died. In this puzzling world, we needed to know just where the Lord is. God is everywhere, but Jesus, God who became our brother, and bears divinity with human approachability, is right here...
Now that I am a priest, and say Mass for crowds of people, I see how calm and deep is the faith of the great numbers who crowd into church every Sunday.
When I raise the host that has become the body of Jesus our Savior, I realize that they are adoring him as willingly as I do. When I raise the chalis that holds his precious blood, which was shed to save the world, their faith supports my own. Then it is a great joy to cry out: "Let us proclaim the mystery of faith!" This faith is not a burden: it lifts us up.

~Ronald Lawler, O.F.M. CAP.